Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves the room after giving a press conference in Jerusalem on May 21, 2025. (Credit: Ronen Zvulun/AFP.)
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Tuesday called on Benjamin Netanyahu to return to the idea of a two-state solution, citing the Israeli Prime Minister's own remarks made in 2009.
Condemning once again "in the strongest terms the bombings of civilians, the blocking of humanitarian aid, forced population displacements, and the recent decisions of the Israeli government regarding the establishment of new settlements," the French minister expressed to lawmakers his belief in an alternative to "the state of permanent war that the current decisions of the Israeli government foreshadow."
"There is another path, another solution. And the one who described it best is Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel in 2009," he said.
He quoted Benjamin Netanyahu: "We must tell the truth. Within this homeland lives a large community of Palestinians. We do not want to dominate them. We do not want to govern their lives. We do not want to impose on them our flag or our culture. In my vision of peace on this small piece of land that is ours, two peoples live freely side by side in friendship and mutual respect. [...] Neither will threaten the security or existence of the other."
"And I say it now clearly, if we receive this guarantee regarding the demilitarization and the security needs of Israel and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, then we will be ready, within the framework of a future peace agreement, to achieve a solution where a demilitarized Palestinian state will exist alongside the Jewish state," Netanyahu continued, according to the French minister.
"Well then, ladies and gentlemen deputies, we are calling the Israeli Prime Minister to return exactly and precisely to his 2009 remarks, because it is the only path and the only road to peace," emphasized Jean-Noël Barrot.
France and Saudi Arabia will preside over an international conference on the Palestinian issue from June 17 to 20 in New York, with the aim of promoting the two-state solution.
Israel criticizes Paris' intention to conditionally recognize a Palestinian state.
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has been laying siege to Gaza entirely, at the cost of tens of thousands of deaths and a humanitarian disaster. The Netanyahu government announced in early May a plan for the "conquest" of the Palestinian enclave, which anticipates relocating most of the residents to the far south of the territory.